1.2 Data files for the Examples

Many of the examples in this Web page take their input from two sample
data files. The first, mail-list, represents a list of peoples’ names
together with their email addresses and information about those people.
The second data file, called inventory-shipped, contains
information about monthly shipments. In both files,
each line is considered to be one record.

In mail-list, each record contains the name of a person,
his/her phone number, his/her email address, and a code for his/her relationship
with the author of the list.
The columns are aligned using spaces.
An ‘A’ in the last column
means that the person is an acquaintance. An ‘F’ in the last
column means that the person is a friend.
An ‘R’ means that the person is a relative:

The data file inventory-shipped represents
information about shipments during the year.
Each record contains the month, the number
of green crates shipped, the number of red boxes shipped, the number of
orange bags shipped, and the number of blue packages shipped,
respectively. There are 16 entries, covering the 12 months of last year
and the first four months of the current year.
An empty line separates the data for the two years: